Machines may be used to move earth, rocks, and other materials from one location to another. It may be desirable to move material from an excavation site, for example, to another location sufficiently removed from the excavation site that the material must be transported some distance before being dumped. For example, the earth, rocks, and/or other materials may be loaded by one machine, such as a wheel loader, onto another machine, such as an off-highway truck, that may, in turn, transport the materials to a dump site.
It may be important that the payload of the machine that transports the materials be within a certain load range, and that it be balanced within the payload carrier of the machine. A payload that is too heavy and/or not optimally balanced or distributed in an off-highway truck may increase tire wear, adversely affect fuel economy, and damage machine components. In addition, machine design limits may be exceeded if an off-highway truck is extensively overloaded. This may adversely affect braking and/or steering performance. Even if machine components are not immediately damaged by a particular payload that may be excessive and/or unbalanced, the machine may be unduly stressed, and excessive component wear may result. A payload that is not optimally distributed may result in poor ride control and operator stress. In addition, a payload that is too light may decrease productivity. It is desirable that there be efficient and effective communication between a machine that is loading and a machine that is being loaded in order to ensure proper payload control.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,093 issued to Gudat et al. on Aug. 13, 1996 (“the '093 patent”), discloses a system and method for providing navigation signals to assist one machine in loading another machine at a worksite. The '093 patent discloses the use of a navigation system, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS), in determining a desired location of a hauling machine based on a current position of a loading machine. The loading machine may dump material into the hauling machine at different positions between successive work cycles to allow for even distribution of material into the hauling machine. The hauling machine may be equipped with a system for monitoring payload, and the loading machine may be notified when the hauling machine is filled to capacity.
While the system of the '093 patent may provide some degree of communication between a loading machine and a hauling machine and some degree of payload control, the system of the '093 patent can be improved upon. While alluding to even distribution of material, the system of the '093 patent does not account for differing distribution characteristics among materials of different sizes. Also, the system of the '093 patent does not communicate data to the loading machine so that it may know where to deposit a load, or how much material to deposit in a given load. In addition, while mentioning filling the hauling machine to capacity, the system of the '093 patent does not account for situations where one more load from the loading machine may exceed the optimal capacity of the hauling machine. As a result, material may not be evenly distributed and the hauling machine, in fact, may be overloaded.
The present disclosure is directed to one or more improvements in the existing technology.